POULTRY REVOLUTION IN LOHARDAGA – A SUCCESS STORY

An excellent collaboration of district administration and NGO

BACKGROUND: Most of the villagers in

Lohardaga district are engaged in
agricultural activities for their livelihood.
With hardly 12% of the agricultural land
having irrigational facilities, most of the
farmers are heavily dependent on rainfall
for agricultural production. Nevertheless,
production is quite erratic. Keeping this in mind, the district administration decided to
provide some additional source of income to the poor families. Engaging the rural women
folk in various allied activities through Self help groups was the best solution. Various
activities viz. dairy, poultry, vermin-compost, goat rearing activity, piggery etc were
taken up.
WHY POULTRY? Market study by Peter Rebero and Nishant Kurup, interns from Goa
Institute of Management in May 2002 showed that the whole Jharkhand particularly
Ranchi is a huge deficit market. The daily sell in Ranchi is 20 tons of live bird but the
average daily production in and around Ranchi is only 5 tons. 15 tons of live poultry
birds are being purchased from nearby states. The annual growth of poultry market is
estimated to be 20%. Seeing this immense potential, members of Self Help Groups of
Kuru block of Lohardaga with support from PRADAN, a local NGO, decided to take
poultry activity as a livelihood option.
Lohardaga Grameen Poultry Cooperative Society Ltd came in existence in
November 2002. It comprised of 160 members. It
was registered under Jharkhand Self supporting act
1997. After the cooperative was registered,
department of cooperatives, government of
Jharkhand released an amount of Rs 28.35 lakh. Out
of this, Rs 10 lakh was for working capital, Rupees
2 lakh for office cum training centre and the rest Rs 16.35 lakh for subsidy to 161
members for shed construction.
 RSVY – A BOON IN DISGUISE :
Seeing the immense potential of this activity in the
district and the demand from poor villagers, the
district administration, headed by the Deputy
Commissioner, Ms. Aradhana Patnaik, in the year
2004-05, decided to take up Poultry Activity on a
mass scale. 400 units were initially taken up,
amounting to Rs 161.10 lakhs, of which Rs 50 lakhs
was funded from RSVY and Rs.111.10 lakhs was in
the form of bank loan and members contribution.
Encouraged by the success and the huge demand
from villagers, 400 more units were taken up in the
year 2005-06 from RSVY. The unit cost per unit was Rs 40,275, of which subsidy was
Rs 12,500 and the rest Rs 27,775 was loan component.
OBJECTIVE OF THE COOPERATIVE: Poultry farming is a lucrative business but
not always. Many a times due to fluctuation of prices of input as well as output in market,
the farmers have to bear huge losses. Poor farmers do not have sufficient backup to cope
up during the lean period. As collectivization helps the farmers bargain in the market, the
basic objective of the cooperative is to purchase raw materials in bulk and marketing of
birds collectively. Chicks are provided to the members at a fixed price, lower than the
prevailing market price, round the year. The ready birds are picked from the sheds of the
members at a fixed price round the year and sold in the market at prevailing market price.
All these services are provided to the members’ right at their door steps. In this way, the
farmers are neither getting affected with the price fluctuation of input nor ready birds.
They get almost a fixed income every batch. The income will fluctuate only with skill,
manual input and management of the individual
farmer.
PROFILE OF THE MEMBERS: All the members
of the cooperative are women from Schedule Caste
and Schedule Tribe belonging to different Self Help
Groups. Presently there are 861 members.
 Project cost for one unit (300 birds size):
Poultry shed 300 sqft @ Rs 80 per sq ft
Rs 24,000
Equipment for 300 chicks @ Rs 6 per chick Rs 1,800
Cost of Day Old Chicks @ Rs 15/ chick Rs 4,500
Cost of feed for 300 chicks 3.5 kg/ chick @ Rs 9/ kg Rs 8,775
Overhead for 300 chicks @ Rs 4/ chick Rs 1,200
Total for one unit of 300 chicks Rs 40,275

FEED UNIT UNDER RSVY: To sustain in the

market, it was essential to reduce the cost of
production. Since feed alone consists of 65% of the
cost of production, the district administration
decided to construct a feed plant, the first of its kind
in Jharkhand, from RSVY. Before construction of
the unit, feed for the co-operative were being
purchased from Kolkatta and Indore, which was costly as well as not so fresh. Poultry
feed consists of 60% of maize. Most of the feed mills in India depend on the maize
produced in Bihar and Jharkhand. It was decided to procure concentrate from other places
and purchase maize locally. The total cost was Rs 4 lakh, out of which Rs 2 lakh was
subsidy under RSVY and rest were contributed by co-operative society. After the plant
started producing feed, it has reduced the cost of production by Rs 2 per kg and the profit
has increased by Rs 500 to 600 per month per member. The unit produces 9 to 10 tonnes
feed per day. 8 rural youths are earning their livelihood from this unit. At present, this
unit has gone one step ahead. Soya De- oiled cake is being procured from Indore. This
has improved the feed quality further.
HATCHERY UNDER RSVY:
After feed, chick is another important component. This constitutes around 25% of the
cost of production. It was thus decided to construct a poultry Hatchery from RSVY with
the dual objective of reducing the cost of production and ensuring quality chicks. The
largest Hatchery of Jharkhand and the first of its kind in the State, with a capacity of 3
lakh day old chicks per month is about to be made operational. The building has been
constructed and equipments have been ordered. The production is expected within 2
months. After it starts functioning, the cost of production per
kilogram of chicken would further go down by Rs 2 and the profit
per member would go by another Rs 500 to 600 per month. This
would help the farmers compete with the big farmers of nearby
states Nearly 60 persons would be employed in this hatchery. The
total cost is Rs 96.404 lakhs of which RS 58.099 lakhs is subsidy
from RSVY and rest is bank loan as well as contribution from co-
operative. The hatchery is expected to be functional by July 2006.
The detail of the scheme is as under:
Heads Grant Soft loan Sub Contribution Bank Total
(RSVY) (RSVY) Total(RSVY) (Society) Loan
Building 5.650 1.130 6.780 3.825 2.825 13.430
Equipments 40.924 7.400 48.324 3.600 8.000 59.924
Working 11.525 2.305 13.830 3.458 5.762 23.050
Total 58.099 10.835 68.934 10.883 16.587 96.404
(All the amounts are in rupees lakhs)
Training and capacity building of farmers under RSVY
A seven days training programme was provided by PRADAN in collaboration with the
District Animal Husbandry Officer. A total of Rs 7 lakhs was provided for imparting
training to farmers from RSVY.
Broiler Farming: 7 day Training

In broiler farming, the first week determines to a large extent the performance of bird. A
1-week on-job residential training to the farmers is designed. For a batch of 20 trainees -
10 sheds are ear-marked and chicks are ordered. 20 trainees are invited a day before the
arrival of the chicks. The trainees are involved in the process of shed disinfection and
preparing for the brooding unit. After the chicks arrive 2 farmers are allocated to each
shed along with the shed owner. Together they take care of brooding of their respective
sheds under the supervision of the veterinary doctor. Everyday there are two classroom
sessions where theoretical understanding is provided. After doing first vaccination, the
guest trainees would return home and prepare their own sheds for placement of chicks.
The host trainees would continue to be trained under the supervision of the veterinary
doctor.
Fighting Bird Flu:
Bird flu has always been a nightmare for the
people related to poultry throughout the world.
The poor farmers have suffered most. Bird flu has
affected the whole poultry industry so this co-
operative is bound to be effected. The co-operative
has incurred a loss of Rs 25 lakh this year due to
bird flu but the members were not much affected
as the co-operative was purchasing the birds at a fixed price, which was being offered
earlier. It has also helped the members carry on with the activity by providing working
capital which otherwise would have been eroded. Presently, with the improvement in the
market, the co-operative is expected to recover its loss soon. The members joined hand
together and reduced their margin of profit during bird flu to help co-operative cope up
with the situation.

ACHIEVEMENT:
At present 861 farmers (all women) are engaged in the activity. Two years back, only 161
farmers were into the activity. The daily broiler production is 4.0 tonnes per day. Within
last one year, the farmers have earned Rs 52.37 lakhs as profit. The co-operative has an
annual turnover of Rs 653 lakhs. 861 tribal families have been directly benefited from
this activity as the average monthly income per member has now increased by Rs 2000 –
Rs 2500.

OUTCOME:
v EMPLOYMENT: This activity is directly benefiting 861 rural SC, ST women
who are earning around Rs 2000 per month. More than 50 rural educated youths
are also earning their livelihood by playing a support role to the co-operative.
Another 50 persons would be employed in the hatchery within a month. Being a
naxalite-affected area this has a very positive impact in the community.
v MIGRATION REDUCED: Migration has reduced to a great extent. Earlier
migration was quite common in this area due to lack of livelihood opportunities.
v SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Apart from imparting financial and
economic independence to
the families of the
cooperative members, this
activity has helped in
improving the standard of
living of the people. It has
also indirectly helped in
socio-economic development of the villages involved as the health and
educational standards have improved and the participation and active involvement
of rural women in implementation of various government schemes has improved
significantly.
v SOCIAL BINDING: Apart from improving the socio-economic standard of the
poor families, it has also created social binding and a sense of collective
ownership amongst the women. The classic example is fighting bird flu. None of
them stopped farming during the period and they all helped the co-operative in
tackling the situation by not taking the profit during the period and reducing their
own margin.

v ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS: Women have gained the enterprising skills

through this activity and hence their bargaining power has increased.

v SOCIAL STATUS OF WOMEN IMPROVED: Since this activity is totally done

by women and the income goes directly in the hands of women, the status and say
of women folk in the family has increased. Cash earning helps them in spending,
which help them, lead a better life. They have started investing in social security
schemes like LIC, fix deposit. They also invest in having better fooding and better
clothing etc. Hence this activity has helped them lead a life with dignity.